Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 445: Mother Nature

Chapter 445: Mother Nature

Vengeance was derived from love. Love from hate. Hate from fear.

That was mother nature. That was her kindness, her will, her hate, and her judgement. Humans were too cruel for her future to be able to flourish. She needed to warn them. She needed to tell them they could no longer hunt her kind.

Now, the wrath of mother nature was dead.

When the light finally faded, the Bake-kujira was motionless and unmoving. Steam and smoke rose from the cracked skeleton. Its head half destroyed and its innards burned from the fire and lightning. The water around the creature stilled. The storm clouds had dissipated.

Lake Shinji was...at peace.

Kazi lowered his hands, the golden aura of Gargantua Super Strike flickering out of existence. His breathing was heavy, his fingers spasming like aftershocks, but his expression remained calm and his hair and clothes flicked colours. He was different. He could feel it. Something had changed within him.

Far away, on the boats that had been flung over a kilometer away, cheers erupted. The warriors realized the battle was over. The immense pressure it constantly emitted. The fear and danger that loomed when it was around. It was totally wiped. The Bake-kujira, the colossal terror of Matsue, was no more.

The Ibong Adarna and the carried players flew close. Kazi was too exhausted to examine anything.

"Kazi!" That was Booker yelling. "It’s not over!"

His head snapped up.

The defeated skeleton whale began to convulse.

C-CRAAK!

The colossal ribs cracking open like ancient gates. The Bake-kujira wasn’t moving. It was dead.

Whatever was inside was not.

From within the broken shell of the fallen Bake-kujira came a sound—a sharp, grating screech that was like chalk, piercing the ear drums and reverberating through the very bones of those present. It was the sound of new life forcing its way into existence, born from the hatred and pain of its mother.

Vengeance was derived from love. Love from hate. Hate from fear.

Fear of the children in her womb getting slaughtered and meeting the same fate as the ones the humans hunted down.

This was mother nature’s will.

The first of the twins emerged. It tore through the bone-protected womb. Though half the size of its mother, the freshly birthed Bake-kujira no less pressed an atmosphere down on everything around. A killing intent that was tensed the fingers and boggled the mind. The skeleton whale was sleek, its skull narrower but sharp, jagged, and covered with markings that glowed red.

The same could be said for the other twin. Sleeker, smaller, yet glowing strangely. Glowing...blue.

Markings? Smaller iterations of the Bake-kujira? The same pressure?

"T-two of them...?" Jules murmured. "It was...protecting its children?"

"Humans hunted down whales," Kazi murmured, "and so, when she became pregnant, the Bake-kujira started hunting us. For vengeance; for the future of her children."

Without humans, her children would be able to roam the seas without fear. The mother would be able to smile happily and with no fear. She wished to be like a mother at a playground, peaceful and content.

But with humans riding the seas as well...

Yes, now it all made sense. The pieces fell into place. The Bake-kujira was a mother’s will and these were her children. Twins that marked and protected.

The "red" Bake-kujira let out a guttural roar. The first thing it saw was its dead mother. It understood. It wept.

Then it attacked.

The Red Bake-kujira released a jet of steam so hot and violent that Kazi immediately knew he had to cast Divine Miracle Water. There was no time to waste: pitter-patter, pitter-patter, the rain returned heavier and stormier than ever. This was no ordinary steam—it twisted unnaturally in the air, forming searing projectiles. Exuding from its bare ribs, the steam missiles shot forward and hunted the humans in the distance.

They were far. It took a while for them to travel. Kazi raised a finger, "Fire D—"

A terrible searing pain came down on him. His hair dimmed in colour, flickering between gold, blue, and red, and his very aura seemed to resist the idea of a fire attack. ’W-what the hell is going on with me—?’

Without Kazi, the players and samurai were left to fend for themselves. It went as well as it could. The missiles blew past any countering spells from the Children of Athena. They were measly compared to this infant. The steam missiles struck and tore through flesh and wood alike. One moment the players were celebrating, and the next, they tried to shield themselves and half a dozen boats were aflame, the water boiling beneath them as survivors screamed for aid.

The Children of Athena were incapable of long-distance barriers. All they could do was weaken the attacks ever so slightly and to gain distance away from the hunting steam missiles. As for the others...they hoped that the Divine Miracle Water would heal those in the hot water.

The Red Bake-kujira focused on the people on Kazi’s left. But there were two. Twins. One could go left, one could go right.

The situation went from bad to horrific.

The "blue" Bake-kujira proceeded to slither through the water toward the opposing end. It did not stay afloat like its mother or sibling was, it moved—and moved fast. With an aura of blue, an eerie luminescence, Kazi’s left eye pulsed.

Heading directly for Samantha’s side, the Blue Bake-kujira’s beaming blue eye socket glowed brighter. Its skull opened its jaw and a thick, oppressive mist poured forth and rolled toward them. Samantha and her guild would try to raise barriers.

She would fail. The barriers would melt. Samantha and her whole guild would die a fast, painful death. His Divine Miracle Water would be too slow to heal. This was the plague with its form altered and physical. Not in an invisible, proper form but an acidic liquid. A devastating attack rather than an Incomplete Territory.

To slaughter them in their entirety, the blue marked skeleton whale would ram into the boat and utterly crush them with its weight. Samantha and her guild would all certainly die. There were would be no survivors, not even a lucky one.

To Ascend meant to understand oneself. Kazi understood himself as truly great. A god amongst men. The trump card in this battle. It was not pride or vanity, it was fact. He could accomplish a feat the greatest of healers could not. He could control lakes and he could change and adjust and adapt the properties of the Divine Miracle Water was not difficult either.

Water that cured the plague.

Water that protected men from a physical manifestation of the plague.

He could do it all with the Divine Miracle Water.

With a flick of his wrist and a burst from his feet, Kazi Hossain was off. He chased after the slithering Blue Bake-kujira, flinging from platform to platform and intercepted it. There were plenty of boats in between Samantha and the charging blue-marked whale. However, those boats were quick to row away.

In his vision, half of them were crushed anyway.

With a wave of his hand, he prevented that future and flung them away.

In his vision, he witnessed Samantha mouth at her guild. She believed that with a coordinated barrier, they might be able to withstand it. She would be wrong.

"H-huh? Kazi? What are you...?"

He waved his hand again and again, preventing those that were supposed to die in the crossfire to avert their fate. The Blue Bake-kujira opened its mouth. It was time. Half the size of its mother meant it was still huge. A hundred feet in width and almost as much in height. Larger than any whale in human history.

Likely among the fastest too. It travelled two kilometers in ten seconds.

Both hands came up and clenched into a fist. Water bubbled underneath the fastly approaching skeleton until it suddenly stopped. No, not stopped, it was moving but being pushed against by the current. Kazi took a deep breath, brought one hand down...

Swish!

....and hurled the Blue Bake-kujira deeper the lake, away from the land and the people. Like it was some toy in a bath, he chucked the three hundred ton whole, heaving out a single heavy breath. It was an effort he had not been able to do with the mother. But the infant? With half its size and height?

Everybody witnessed the impossibly large whale soar through the sky and splash loudly when it landed.

Samantha let out a breath of relief, "Thanks," but it was short-lived. They could see it clearly now. The people on the parallel end who had to deal with the steaming missiles of the Red Bake-kujira. They were going to die unless someone did something. Kazi was here but even he wasn’t fast enough to counter all those missiles from all the way here.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three anti-magic bullets. Three bullets that destroyed nine well-arranged arranged missiles of steam. Kazi might not be able to make it. However, Booker Davis Jr was here.

The Red Bake-kujira was swimming towards them, gradual and slow and entirely focused on attacking with its missiles. Between each round of missiles were ten whole seconds. It was not like her mother who could create steam rapidly to counter. Yes, while both infants possessed the same magnetic sensing and echolocation, this twin seemed particularly slow.

’Ah, they’re infants. They’re still learning themselves.’

Which was why the Class Five Phoenix that Matty and Jules rode upon and charged with was a comforting answer to the young babe.

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